This document is one of eight in a series of guides designed to help teach and counsel troubled youth. It cuts across the areas covered in the other guides (coping skills, social skills, and school skills) to present 20 important lessons for troubled youth. Individual lessons in this guide focus on gangs and gang membership; special education; over-intellectualizing; excuse-making; teacher-student communication; the importance of punctuality; how to properly ride on the school bus; personal space and distance issues; how to think before acting; how to work together cooperatively; gang dependence and denial; alternatives to running away; appropriate behavior with a substitute teacher; the danger of prejudice and stereotyping; codependency and gang membership; the basics of therapy group operation as it relates to confidentiality; self-esteem; classroom rules; how to accept "no" for an answer; and how to avoid imploding one mistake into many by lying, having a temper tantrum, covering up, or making additional poor choices. (NB)